Use of Church Buildings and Day of Week to Meet for Worship

[barnhart]

Another church uses our building on Saturday evenings, it also houses a school and other things like birthday parties, community events, vacation Bible school, Saturday morning breakfast for the unhoused etc... We have tried to keep most of the space open to allow for more flexible use. This type of space has been a real blessing for us.

[Josh]

Our group bought a functional church and school for $400k in the Denver area which certainly seems like a bargain. It’s downtown in a small town.

Also a Methodist church 2 hours from Detroit for $200k… including enough classrooms for the school, and a pretty big parking lot. Levelling and paving a parking lot that big alone would cost $200k now.

The Free Methodist church is now meeting on various days of the week in coffee shops and nursing homes. They have women’s church, elderly people’s church, people who have had addictions church, etc

[Judas Maccabeus]

Our group bought a functional church and school for $400k in the Denver area which certainly seems like a bargain. It’s downtown in a small town.

Also a Methodist church 2 hours from Detroit for $200k… including enough classrooms for the school, and a pretty big parking lot. Levelling and paving a parking lot that big alone would cost $200k now.

The Free Methodist church is now meeting on various days of the week in coffee shops and nursing homes. They have women’s church, elderly people’s church, people who have had addictions church, etc

Do you think it is a good idea to fractionate a church in that manner?

[Judas Maccabeus]

Another church uses our building on Saturday evenings, it also houses a school and other things like birthday parties, community events, vacation Bible school, Saturday morning breakfast for the unhoused etc... We have tried to keep most of the space open to allow for more flexible use. This type of space has been a real blessing for us.

We got rid of our pews, and went to flexible benches. However, between church and school, there is really little time to have any other group use it. We have had a few, but we cannot do it on an ongoing basis.

[Josh]

Our group bought a functional church and school for $400k in the Denver area which certainly seems like a bargain. It’s downtown in a small town.

Also a Methodist church 2 hours from Detroit for $200k… including enough classrooms for the school, and a pretty big parking lot. Levelling and paving a parking lot that big alone would cost $200k now.

The Free Methodist church is now meeting on various days of the week in coffee shops and nursing homes. They have women’s church, elderly people’s church, people who have had addictions church, etc

Do you think it is a good idea to fractionate a church in that manner?

I would give credit that at least those Methodists are trying.

The pastor still lives in the parsonage next to church. He said he is simply glad to see the parking lot with cars in it on Sunday mornings again.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Our group bought a functional church and school for $400k in the Denver area which certainly seems like a bargain. It’s downtown in a small town.

Also a Methodist church 2 hours from Detroit for $200k… including enough classrooms for the school, and a pretty big parking lot. Levelling and paving a parking lot that big alone would cost $200k now.

The Free Methodist church is now meeting on various days of the week in coffee shops and nursing homes. They have women’s church, elderly people’s church, people who have had addictions church, etc

Do you think it is a good idea to fractionate a church in that manner?

I would give credit that at least those Methodists are trying.

The pastor still lives in the parsonage next to church. He said he is simply glad to see the parking lot with cars in it on Sunday mornings again.

But unless the church meets as one body, are you simply creating just a loose affiliation of identity groups?

[Josh]

But unless the church meets as one body, are you simply creating just a loose affiliation of identity groups?

I think the alternative was simply shutting down completely. And they did have some small groups that were still meeting. (COVID really hurt them badly.)

I think they also wanted to reach people who are "unchurched" and not comfortable coming to a typical Sunday meeting. (My parents would be two people in this category. They do sometimes feel comfortable coming to just Sunday school, though, as they like participating and getting to talk.)

Here is their website: https://dfchurch.net/home

They do actually have a Sunday gathering which is held at a senior centre. Perhaps that makes sense, if a lot of their attendees are senior citizens. I used to live in that town and perhaps I could have connected better with something like that back then.

On the flip side, now my church is having meetings there - and I used to walk past the building they have meetings in every day when I walked to work. Perhaps I could have connected with that, too. Who knows.